Family nightmare
by sarabrass
Summary: A phone call demands attention. A second scares her to death.
1. Chapter 1

Urghh. What time is it? Where's that blasted phone? Someone answer it please! There it is!

"Mrs Brass?" Oh no. 

"Mrs Brass, it's Miss Walden at Summerline Elementary. There has been an accident and we are asking all parents to come to the school."

OK. I am awake now. Accident? What is she talking about? Hang on, the other phone is ringing.

"Sara, its Grissom. There has been a major incident at Summerline Elementary. Can you get down there as soon as you can!"

Well of course I can. Two calls about the same thing what does he expect? Where the hell is Jim?


	2. Chapter 2

On the drive to the school Sara could not focus. Jim wasn't answering his phone. Grissom had no other details other than the word incident. The school had called it an accident. So which was it? They were two different things. What had happened? Was anyone hurt? Killed? No, she had to get that thought out of her head straight away. It's a school in the middle of the day, think happy thoughts!

The school is up ahead. Road blocks everywhere. The school secretary up front trying to get all the parents together so they could be told what had happened and what was happening, as well as to take their children home. The police and other agencies going the other way to meet and produce a plan of action. Which way should Sara go? And where the hell was Jim?

She tried his cell again. No answer. Of course not, he was probably busy in all this mess. He would not have been contacted by the school as they had spoken to her. Which way to go? Sara slowed down as she tried to make a decision. Her ID was already in her hand and vest on the passenger seat but she needed to know about the kids too. She knew Jim would have to be business only so she made the choice to be parent. At least initially until she knew her own were safe and then she could focus on the others. Putting her ID down she pulled over near to the secretary and jumped out.

Immediately a cop that she knew came running over to intercept her and she grabbed her ID and vest and told the cop to take her car to the other CSI's, that she would be there in a moment. Putting the vest on she looked at the secretary and asked for details. As she listened the colour drained from her face.

A tanker had lost control on the road and had ploughed in through the school gates and into one of the classroom blocks. Most of the school had been evacuated but there were still a class unaccounted for. Trapped between the tanker and a solid wall. Sara found herself too afraid to ask which one. She turned silently and walked up the hill to the rest of her team who were waiting with questioning faces. Not caring, Sara asked for an official update. She continued listening, not liking what she heard and wondering where her family was.

There was nothing to be done at the moment she heard Grissom state. They were waiting for the fire department to get in there and the company that owned the tanker to come and see if they could empty it safely. No-one had managed to get to the driver and so no-one knew what had really happened. The fire department were worried about the roof collapsing so no-one had been in to check on the children. Everyone was sitting around for someone else to make a decision.

Sara made it for them. She was not going to stand around while twenty-odd kids and their teachers were hiding under tables crying for their parents. She liked the teachers that she dealt with from their chosen school, but how strong could they really be in a situation like this? Its would hardly have been on the college syllabus when they were training! She started down towards the school as she could hear the team shouting behind her. Ignoring them she walked straight to the most competent looking fire officer and asked him for an update. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief but started the update and what his ideas for the next stage were. Finally, someone was talking sense Sara thought and she helped the officer with ideas and thoughts of her own. Half an hour later they had a solid plan and were explaining it to those who could put it into action.


	3. Chapter 3

On the other side of the school Jim was just as frustrated. He had seen the calls from Sara but could not answer them. He didn't want to know for the moment. Could not know because for the moment he had to see the bigger picture. He was there as a Captain in the LVPD, not a parent of a couple of kids from the school. He had to be a parent for ALL the kids in the school. Especially the ones trapped. He did not want to think about it. All he could do was his job and worry later. Sara would understand. In fact, since she had stopped calling, he presumed that she was doing the same.

Other cops came to him to tell him that the LVFD were finally ready to put a plan into effect and needed the cadets that he had had the fore thought to arrange for. Jim stumbled over to the table where everything was being co-ordinated from and was not too shocked to see his wife looking at him from across it. Sighing, he could gain relief about one of the things on his mind. Seeing a slight nervous smile come his way, he smiled back and listened to the plans.

As they were working out the finer points of the task ahead the tanker was joined by another and its contents transferred. Cranes went to work moving parts of the walls and roof from around the tanker so they could gain access. 

Firemen moved into position, to go in and, like a human chain, get the kids out one by one. Cadets were lined up behind the firemen ready to carry them up to the ambulances and paramedics waiting. Each were told that they had to get the names of not only the child but their parents and cell phone numbers by the time they got to their objective so that the parents could be told which ambulance they were to be picked up from or if their child had to go to hospital. The paramedics were waiting with their instructions and were ready and raring to go as well.

Sara had to stand back. Her personal job was over for the moment and her professional one would not start until the building had been cleared and deemed safe. Her knees buckled at the thought of being as helpless as the rest of the parents. She had to presume that the twins were inside as there had been no more phone calls from the school secretary to the contrary. Brenda was in the high school up the road so she was safe at least. Another awful thought went through Sara's mind. How would Brenda cope? She had lost one family, not that it was a good one, and to lose siblings like this. 

NO. STOP. Stop thinking like this. Please. Just stop. You have to be strong. Damn it!

Jim couldn't move. He watched as Sara stepped back. Watched the emotions flashing across her face. He was thinking the exact same things he was sure. As carefully as he could, he walked up to her and enveloped her with his arms. Promising all kinds of things that he was in no position to know. As they fell to their knees they could hear things happening and so Jim steered his wife over to the group of CSI's who seemed not to have moved even though everyone else was at battle stations. It was something Jim had hated when he had worked for them, and one he knew that Sara hated at times as well. Their job was not to save, to rescue, to act and react. Their job was after the fact. Mopping up after the mess. The impassive, unemotional scientists that could not get involved with anything as unscientific as the actual event.

Everyone knew the story of twenty eye-witnesses watching exactly the same thing coming up with twenty different versions or aspects of the truth. And so it would be here too. That's why they didn't interact until everyone else was gone. That's why, when thinking about it later, they would all ponder what Sara had done and why, and all come up with different theories. None of this mattered to Jim or Sara at this moment. They simply turned back to the school and watched carefully. Looking for a face or head that looked familiar. Sara got her "Mrs Brass" phone out of her pocket and stood with it in her hand as Jim stood behind her and put his arms around her.

You would have been able to hear a pin drop in the montage except that Greg decided it was time for answers. Sara gave him a dirty, I will kill you, look and he was hushed. 

She looked away deep in thought. What would happen to her family? It was time for change. It was not as if they hadn't spoken of it already. Vegas was too dangerous. Her job was too dangerous. The kid's lives too precious. Hers too. And Jim's. Brenda and the twins had been secretly, well not that secretly, plotting and choosing where else to live. They could be heard at the computer in the study, not doing homework but researching states with the lowest crime rates, towns with no crime at all, neighbourhoods where you can leave your backdoor unlocked. Sara knew that this was not exactly the truth of things, and that half the places they chose she would never go to if they were the last places on earth, but she had to admit that they were right to want to move.

She and Jim had found their secret box of ideas in the back of Brenda's closet, big bright letters saying "Mum and Dad Stay OUT of this box". They had gone through it with tears in their eyes. Torn between their responsibilities as law enforcement officers and those of parenthood. They had vowed that if either of them had a seriously bad day again they would go. Brenda's family, or need of one, had brought them together. Cases on both sides had brought them closer. Nick's abduction had threatened to ruin everything they had worked hard for. They were both scared after that. This was the last straw. This was it. It was no longer a case of adults being in trouble but the kids themselves. As they stood on the hill watching as one child after another was pulled from the building they silently agreed that today was their last day in Vegas. Tomorrow they would take their family to safety.

The phone finally rang and Sara listened as the information was relayed. Both boys were safe. They were together and they could be picked up at ambulance number five. The couple walked in that direction hand in hand not saying a word to the group around them. They picked up the boys, picked up Brenda from her school and drove away.

Grissom and the others in the team tried to call for days afterwards. Griss went to their house to find the place empty. The family were gone. And more importantly they were safe.


End file.
